Credit standards and factors affecting their strictness in the segment of SMEs in the Slovakia

Abstract

Credit standards have a strong impact on GDP and the average size of provided loans within the economy. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether such factors as the age of entrepreneurs and the size of their companies are relevant, and have a significant impact on the perception of credit standards. The research is focused on the impact of the selected factors and comparison of the perception of strictness of credit conditions before and after the crisis on the basis of the data from two surveys carried out among 756 Slovak companies back in 2008 and then in 2016. Basing on the Pearson´s chi-square analysis of the results we may present the statistical evidence that the age of an owner and the size of a company have significant impact on the perception of loan criteria, while the impact of company’s size has higher intensity.